Blog Comments

Hey, nothing like bunches of 200s at tempo for melting away the stress!

For sure. I know that there are better/more-efficient ways to improve my 200 race times, but there is a great sense of satisfaction and stress melting in completing a set of 200s on a relatively tight interval.

Alex, thanks again for coming up to Dallas and it was great meeting you and your son; you have a lot to be proud of, he is a great young man counting for his father.

On the goggle front I too use vanquisher goggles since they are reasonably priced and have my prescription in the optical goggles. My only real complaint is that they don't offer a mirror option which would be ideal for swimming backstroke at outdoor meets. Swimoutlet.com usually offers them at great prices.

Interesting workout and thoughts behind it. How did you feel afterwards?

Pretty good. Not a lot of lactic acid build up, as is usually the case with the short rests; but being at a pace that is a lot quicker has different effects, we'll see how sore I am tomorrow.
I think I just needed a mental break more than anything, though it would be interesting to see if I could get to the goal pace by swimming the goal pace first, then adding distance and cutting rests... instead of always trying to swim distances on short rests and hoping that the pace gets faster.

Yeah, I'll try to make it... you'll probably be in the heat with the 16:00 seed times! I'll be in the heat with the 45:00 seed times; no maybe not. I'll probably put 27:00 down just because I feel so out of shape. What do you think?

Dont worry about times. Come and have fun. The 1500m is the last event of the meet and hopefully there will be a fair number of people entered.

Alex, it would be great to meet you in person at our meet in Rockwall. I too plan on swimming the 1500. I hope you decide to come, it will be fun!

Yeah, I'll try to make it... you'll probably be in the heat with the 16:00 seed times! I'll be in the heat with the 45:00 seed times; no maybe not. I'll probably put 27:00 down just because I feel so out of shape. What do you think?

That's a good tip. I keep track of my own splits mentally (assuming I can see them!), so I would just need to watch the clock to leave on the right intervals and keep track of how many intervals I've done on the longer sets... so 8 x 100 on 2:00 (or 16 x 50 on 1:00) means I'm finishing the set at 16:00 and trying to remember more or less my average split.

I thought about one of those watches that keep track of yardage too, but I also wonder how it would affect my stroke... having this thing on my wrist. I guess folks do it all the time, so the effects are probably minimal. My other option is just to buy a small pace clock and set it up at the end of the lane.

I bought one of those swimovate watches a few years back - it counts laps, strokes, takes splits etc., and uploads through a pod to their software onto you computer. It doesn't work real well with the strokes other than free, but was ok, the biggest problem I had was the size of the face digits - they are too small for me to read without glasses on. the watch doesn't materially impact your swimming - I raced with it on last week (just forgetting to take it off. The Timex watch was great in OW courses, keeping track of my lap times. I thought about the portable pace clocks - there is a mini-size pace clock and also one that sits on the bottom of the pool, but wasn't sure I really wanted to lug one around with all the other pool toys.

Alex, I bought a relatively inexpensive Timex "Ironman Triathlon" watch (about $40) and use that at pools with no pace clock. It's been working for over a year now, seems to keep good time, has a large enough face to read, and it's relatively simple to take splits. Not a lot of memory for splits (think it saves about 10 or so).

That's a good tip. I keep track of my own splits mentally (assuming I can see them!), so I would just need to watch the clock to leave on the right intervals and keep track of how many intervals I've done on the longer sets... so 8 x 100 on 2:00 (or 16 x 50 on 1:00) means I'm finishing the set at 16:00 and trying to remember more or less my average split.

I thought about one of those watches that keep track of yardage too, but I also wonder how it would affect my stroke... having this thing on my wrist. I guess folks do it all the time, so the effects are probably minimal. My other option is just to buy a small pace clock and set it up at the end of the lane.